Be Passionate (and How To Fake It If You’re Not)

I’m currently reading Seth Godin’s Free Prize Inside! and this quote caught my eye.

“It’s my passionate belief that when teams of people get together and make something amazing, useful, helpful, productive, funny, inspiring or remarkable, we’re at our full potential as humans…

It’s important. It’s powerful and something that you need to do. Satisfied businesspeople (and nonbusinesspeople, for that matter) are happy because they’re actually doing something. They’re building and creating and designing and leading and shaping and making something come to life.”

This puts a new spin on advice that is echoed in almost every book on leadership and success that I’ve read lately (two standout ones are “The Power of Full Engagement” and “True North”). The advice: do what you love to do. It’s something that everyone’s heard, and an idea that is instantly likeable, but it’s odd how often this principle is forgotten. I know I forget it sometimes – usually right before my productivity goes down and I instantly find 100 other things to do.

Obviously, there will always be some undesirable tasks that need to be done, but I’m getting better at avoiding this unfortunate pattern (William James once said “Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an unfinished task”), and I’ve concocted a few ways of making these obstacles a little less imposing:

1. Delegate, delegate, delegate. I’m just learning this, but you don’t need to have subordinates or direct reports in order to delegate your tasks. Others may be glad to learn a new skill or work on a higher-level project. Also, thanks to the wonders of diversity, there always seem to be people who enjoy unimaginably dull things (or at least can tolerate them more than you do). Trading tasks can be fun, too.

2. Reframe your idea. Framing is a means of putting an idea in a new light. Politicians are wonderful at this: tax relief (relieve me from the burdens of police protection, running water, paved roads, and representative government), death tax (as opposed to the more-accurate “estate tax”), pro-life, pro-choice. But it doesn’t have to be verbal. Think of yourself in a movie, or the CIA. Time yourself and try to break your personal record. Think about it differently to give it an interesting twist.

3. Flow. This is what marathon runners do to get their mind from thinking about physical aches and pains. Focus solely on the task so you stop dreaming about golfing in the Bahamas. Get into a rhythm. Start tapping beats with your pencil or nodding your head. If it doesn’t distract you (or if you want to be distracted), play good music. I recommend music with a solid, consistent beat that is either instrumental or has vocals that are low-key or highly familiar. For work that requires a lot of concentration, here are some of the things I listen to. For more physical or energy-driven work, try something that motivates you.

4. Create a system. Oftentimes, there is a barrier to becoming fully engaged in the task at hand because it is high pressure (i.e. you don’t want to miss anything), complicated, or woefully boring. Creating a system can do wonders in this situation. Design a checklist or make a flowchart of all the things you need to do, then knock the subtasks down one by one in machine-like fashion.

5. Reward yourself. If you can’t drum up any interest in the task at hand, then you’ll surely be interested in being done. Give yourself a reason to finish the task; it’s amazing what a bit of motivation can do. Take a jog, read your favorite blog, eat a carrot, learn about an obscure legal phrase. Whatever it takes, give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done.